The Evangelist Speaks

by Evangelist Carolyn Griffin

God's "Message" About Fasting

Last time we looked at the biblical reasons to fast. My plans were to share some of the benefits of fasting along with some powerful accounts of mighty victories that have been experienced by God’s people after a fast. I thought I would conclude the series this week by sharing different types of fast. I love it when God whispers, “I have a different plan”.  I read several versions of the Bible while preparing messages and faith articles. This week I was led to read from “The Message Bible”. As I began to read from Isaiah 58, a customer came in and asked about a bible in plain every day language. I shared the Message Bible that I had just taken from the shelf. She expressed how clear and easy to understand it was. When I returned to my reading, God revealed His plan for today’s article. It is simply to share Isaiah 58:1-13 from the “Message”. God instructed the Prophet Isaiah to tell the people why they fasted and prayed with no results. He then instructed him to explain His chosen fast, and how they could experience a full life in the emptiest of places if they followed it. That “Message” is so needed today.   

Shout! A full-throated shout! Hold nothing back--a trumpet blast shout! Tell my people what is wrong with their lives; face my family Jacob with their sins! They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me. To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people-law abiding, God honoring. They ask me, “What’s the right thing to do?” and love having me on their side. But they also complain, “Why do we fast and you don’t look our way? Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice. 

Well, here’s why: The bottom line on your fast days is profit. You drive your employees too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?  Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like.

This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: Sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, “Here I am.”

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims; quit gossiping about other people’s sins, if you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places--firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

The “Message” on God’s Chosen Fast is quite clear. The question is, “Will we choose to fast and live God’s way?”  We’ll see what God has planned for the next time!